Adventure Pinball: Forgotten Island

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You two fingers. Me big steel ball on island.

By IGN Staff

Nobody spends the time to slam around a metal ball anymore. Williams is gone, and Sega's cruddy excuses for arcade pinball do little to convince the average drunken bar-goer that getting a replay is more important than slipping a line about angels fallen from heaven to some girl in the opposite corner of the pub. So what's left? The PC has done a good job of giving you a good simulation of the pinball experience, without actually taxing your system requirements. But sometimes, just sometimes, it would be nice to have something a little... flashier.

Pre-rendered screens are fantastic, and some of the detail-work in games like Microsoft Pinball Arcade can be notably impressive, but overall the experience just lacks a certain originality. It's one thing to try to mimic your average golf or football game, since most of us rarely have the talent, money or energy to experience those sports to the fullest, but it's another to play an exact replica of something we could play ourselves just a few miles from our house. Fortunately, Adventure Pinball kicks in with the Unreal engine, and takes the whole pinball thing into 3D. Add a light adventure element, some nice special effects, and you've got a pinball experience that you couldn't have at your local pizza parlor.

The theme, if you hadn't caught it by now, is 30's b-movie adventure in the jungle. You'll take on ten different boards, each with specific goals and sections that you'll have to progress through in order to unlock the next part of the island. The plot (yes, there's even a plot) involves your discovery of your father's map, detailing an island filled with mythic creatures and ancient tribes. No word on exactly why they live in a dangerous land filled with killer steel balls and gigantic ramps. Some sub-part of their tribal religion, I'm assuming. You'll progress through the land by completing specific goals within a level, at which point you can either play through the end of your game, or jump immediately to the next board.

Like any good pinball game nowadays, you won't have instant access to all areas on the board. Instead you'll have to jump through the standard hoops and spin through the standard selection of loops in order to unlock new areas of the board, or in some cases, give you access to the next land. Because it's 3D however, the development team has taken liberties and split up maps in a variety of cool ways. Take on the Mountian Climber level, and you'll have to make your way up sections of a mountain, unlocking each area by completing loops or hitting special bumpers, then landing your ball in a special region so that a pterodactyl can give you a ride up to a higher plateau, or some hungry fish can swallow and spit your ball up a series of waterfalls. In the Ice Mountain stage, you'll have to hit some snowmen to pieces to access a special ramp, and use the help of some angry snow creatures to slap your ball up to the next section of the board. Certain levels have you landing your ball in special pits to give it certain properties, such as turning it into a water, lava or tar ball that you can then use for special bonuses, or to unlock new areas.

In the end, it's still about good old marksmanship, of course. Planning out your attack, learning where the highest bonuses are, and getting your ball-saving techniques down pat are all familiar territory for pinball gamers, and are kept intact in Adventure Pinball. While the map can get a little confusing at time do to the standard problem of a moving screen with static flipper control (something that most pinball PC games have problems with), overall Digital Extremes seems to be taking good advantage of the Unreal engine's assets, even if this is just about smacking a ball around for a few minutes.

Speaking of the Unreal engine, the graphics in Pinball won't turn your eyes into jelly, especially after seeing some of the detail given to games like Unreal Tournament, but it's used well, particularly in the nice animations of the creatures you'll come into contact with on your adventures. At this point the sounds aren't final, so it's hard to comment, but the graphics will definitely keep you entertained. It certainly doesn't hurt that you can play pinball in 1600x1200 resolution, either.

Electronic Arts is definitely reaching into every territory humanly possible this year with online titles, webisodic entertainment, shooters and family favorites. This one should compliment both your library and EA's as the company branches out even farther in the new millenium. Either way, it's not your consideration -- just enjoy the fact that now you've got a safe way to throw chunks of metal at monkeys without the hassle of dealing with the fuzz at your local zoo.

Love pinball then ADVENTURE PINBALL: FORGOTTEN ISLAND is for you. Here you don't play on a table but on an island fraught with danger. Free the island by conquering nine action-packed levels full of ghastly beasts and exploding volcanoes. Discover secret levels and rack up major bonus points. Earn special ball power-ups to solve your toughest challenges and be the pinball champion.